Boyle Traditional Singers' Circle - Ciorcal Ámhránaíochta Traidisiúnta Mhainistir na Búille

3rd Saturday of every month. Next session: 21st March 2020. CANCELLED




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Fáilte - Welcome
to the Boyle Singers' circle - Ciorcal Amhránaíochta Mhainistir na Búille

Traditional unaccompanied singing, in English and Irish.

Dodd’s Crescent Bar (back room), The Crescent, Boyle, Co. Roscommon, Ireland.
The third Saturday of every month, all year around, 9.30pm onwards.

All singers and listeners welcome.


19 Jan 2010 - You brave young sons of Erin's isle ...

You brave young sons of Erin's isle, I hope you will attend a while...

Take a song, any song, the one in the title of this post or any of the other forty five that were heard the other night and get the story. Here's just one about Tipperary (with helpful information from Tim Dennehy's website , a site about the Carden name and most of all Eccentric lives, peculiar notions / by John Michell):

Carden's Wild Domain

Of all the places in this world no matter where I roam,
I love you dear old Erin's Isle my own ancestral home.
Where'er I stray by night or day fond memory draws my brain
To the happy pleasant days I spent around Carden's Wild Domain.

[...]

So rise you men of Bearnán and get ready for the fray
And join the noble General McSweeney from Killea.
Led on by those great mountaineers those lands we'll soon regain
And we'll plant our homesteads once again around Carden's Wild Domain.

The story of John Rutter Carden (born 1811) of Barnane Castle, Tipperary, is briefly this:

Carden inherited Barnane Castle which had been neglected. The tenants had ceased paying rent and didn't want to start again. As Carden insisted on collecting rents, tenants tried repeatedly to kill him. Carden became known as "Woodcock" Carden, as he dipped and dived like that bird. Once, he overpowered two would-be assassins, marched them to jail and had them hanged. The castle was remodelled to withstand assaults. Carden had a swivel-mounted cannon among his attack-resisting weapons.

Then, in his forties, "Woodcock" Carden fell in love with a young girl, Eleanor Arbuthnot, 18 years old at the time and an heiress. He believed that she loved him and that only for her family holding her prisoner, would have declared her love. He pursued her to Scotland, abducted her and was tried and convicted of kidnapping. Many songs were composed about him and the song, "Carden's Wild Domain," was very popular in Ireland.

Carden died in 1866.

Eleanor Arbuthnot apparently never married.

Barnane Castle is now in ruins.

Read more about the 'dreadfully persistent lover', John Rutter Carden in Eccentric lives, peculiar notions / by John Michell

Kate McGarrigle RIP

Sad to report that that great singer, Kate McGarrigle, passed away on Monday, 18th January 2010, aged 63.

Here's an article about her from the Canadian Globe and Mail newspaper.

And a video clip:

Singing events in 2010

It's time to start planning out trips to the best Singing events coming up in 2010. The first one that comes to mind is the Inishowen Traditional Singers' Circle weekend in March.

Here's an outline of the details:

“For 21 years is a mighty long time”
Celebrating 21 years of the Inishowen Folk Song and Ballad Seminar
Dates: 19 – 22 March 2010
Clonmany / Ballyliffin, Inishowen, Co. Donegal
Featuring: Jim McFarland, Len Graham, Micil Quinn, Colm O’Donnell, Peta Webb, Máire Ní Chéilleachair and Derek Williamson
The Inishowen Traditional Singers also hold a monthly session, usually the second Friday of the month.

19 December 2009

Last month, wind and rain, this month, sleet and snow. Roll on 2010 and the Boyle singing circle. Happy New Year to you all. Come along and sing a song for us in 2010.

Boyle Singers Circle poster